The reimagined cover of Ulysses came from Joyce's description of the color green.

Random House

How do the words we read on a page translate into the images we see in our head? Peter Mendelsund, Associate Art Director for Alfred A. Knopf Books, joins Krys Boyd on Think today. At 1 p.m., he’ll discuss the neuroscience behind reading, which he covers in his book What We See When We Read.

Although his book is about the psychology behind reading, Mendelsund does not deal with science on a daily basis. As part of his job in publishing, Mendelsund designs book jackets. He helps create the images we might associate with the literature we read. His work spans from Sonia Sotomayor’s latest book to new editions of Dostoyevsky, Joyce, and Kafka. One of his most notable: the cover for Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. A few examples of his work are featured in the slide show above.